Friday, June 11, 2010

.The Bobby Didge cocktail by Adam Schuman – from the Tipsy Diaries, Frank Bruni's new column on drinks and drinking culture which appears every Friday in the New York Times. Click here to check it out and see a slideshow of other unique cocktails including the Algerian Typist, the Beggarman Thief, and the Penelope Cruiser.

“Bobby Didge”1½ ounces Yamazaki 12-year-old Scotch1 ounce Lillet Blanc½ ounce sesame simple syrup3 dashes house orange bittersOrange twist.Crack two pieces of ice in a pint glass. Add three more pieces of ice. Combine all ingredients over ice and stir for 15 to 20 seconds, adding ice until well chilled. Strain into a bell coupe. Garnish with a long orange peel.[hat tip to Maxbillions / photo Evan Sung/NYT]

Paris 1913. Coco Chanel is infatuated with the rich and handsome Boy Capel, but she is also compelled by her work. Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is about to be performed. The revolutionary dissonances of Igor's work parallel Coco's radical ideas. She wants to democratize women's fashion; he wants to redefine musical taste. Coco attends the scandalous first performance of The Rite in a chic white dress. The music and ballet are criticized as too modern, too foreign. Coco is moved but Igor is inconsolable. Paris 1920, Coco is newly wealthy and successful but grief-stricken after Boy's death in a car crash. Igor, following the Russian Revolution is now a penniless refugee living in exile in Paris. Coco is introduced to Igor by Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes. The attraction between them is instant and electric. Coco invites Igor along with his wife - now sick with consumption - together with his four children and a menagerie of birds to stay at her new villa, Bel Respiro, in Garches.

.Broken Social Scene "All to All"from Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts & Crafts, 2010)If you don't have that record yet, go on, git it git it. A couple weird tracks as with all BSS albums, but overall my favorite new release at the moment.

Monday, June 7, 2010

.I've wanted to write some stuff about this, but haven't had time, and now the night is upon us, so here it is:

The Foundation was a long-running night started in the mid-'90s by Sureshot, Supreme, Soul and myself at a bar in downtown Seattle called the Art Bar. Sureshot, Supreme and I deejayed a bunch of different places (Re-Bar, Crocodile, etc.) to finance our record label, Conception Records, but with Soul promoting, it took off. At first it was called Nitty Gritty because we were playing rare groove, but after awhile it morphed into almost all hip-hop, and we called it The Foundation (the ad-lib at the beginning of the Group Home song "Tha Realness" made me think of it). A bunch of different people started spinning with us and the night got huge – I would always try to spin first so I could play underground stuff that wouldn't really work for the dance floor later on. At one point they showed the flyer (designed by Modern Dog) on MTV because it was one of the longest running hip-hop nights in the country. Anyway, long story short, Emily and I moved to New York in 1999 and it went on for several years after that. Tuesday night the original cast of characters re-unites at the Lodge. It will be a fun party, you should come over.

Nas "Memory Lane" (Prod. DJ Premier) from Illmatic, 1994

...Update: Thanks to everyone who came out, it was cool reconnecting with a bunch of different people from way back and dusting off some old cuts. Special thanks to Soul and Alonso for putting it together, to Marcus for hosting, and to Kutfather and J. Moore for emceeing.